Image Credit : Tim Winter
Project Overview
'The Refuge by Volta' is a magnificent, flexible and free-flowing hospitality space, made up of a bar, dining room, the ‘Den’ - which can be for public use or private hire - and, at its heart, beneath a restored rooflight, a magical Winter Garden.
The 10,000 sq ft space is the beating heart of Principal Manchester, a new hotel set within an incredible, Grade II*-listed, central Manchester, Victorian Gothic Revival building, originally designed in 1891 by Alfred Waterhouse, the architect of London’s Natural History Museum as the headquarters for The Refuge Assurance Company before its initial conversion into a hotel in the 1990s and its thorough refurbishment for Principal.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Project Architect - 3DReid
Project Interior Designer - Michaelis Boyd
Project Brief
The Principal Manchester is set within a Grade II*-listed central Manchester Victorian Gothic Revival building, designed in 1891 by Alfred Waterhouse.
Principal’s philosophy is to bring the unusual to each region but to stay ‘local at heart’. Manchester is an edgy city - or at least a city with an edge – and therefore Principal linked up with a Manchester operator with a big local reputation – restauranteurs and DJs Volta – to create the hotel's new F&B offer.
‘We wanted a partner who understood Manchester. We realised that it wouldn’t work if we just took a manufactured restaurant that had been created in a boardroom in London and then translated it.’
(David Taylor, COO, Principal)
The hotel now features an astonishing series of F&B spaces – over 10,000 sq ft in total - called ‘The Refuge by Volta’, located in what was once the assurance company's gigantic typing pool. Under the previous hotel’s ownership, the space had been partitioned and painted over, masking its incredible scale and rich material splendour.
The design brief for 'The Refuge by Volta' was to reveal and revel in the original listed glory of this incredible space, but also to create an exciting and highly-functional contemporary environment.
Project Innovation/Need
The inspiration behind the design was to reveal the original magnificence of the building and yet to make enough judicious and daring interventions to ensure a contemporary feel. It also had to succeed as an exciting destination space for local as well as hotel clientele in order to fill such huge volumes!
The bar features eclectic furniture, including reclaimed vintage, whilst the restaurant has a more uniform design. Each area has personality but there is also an over-riding DNA. It’s the kind of space no one would ever create from scratch these days, so the design had to be daring to celebrate the incredible volumes the team was working with. Everything was made to be useful and the old pillars compartmentalise very naturally.
The restaurant is lit with bespoke decorative light fittings, from the large brass pendants hanging from the coved ceiling, to lower level pivoting lights that reach over from the banquettes to cast light on to the dinner tables.
The colours used in both the upholstery and the paintwork subtly pick out colours from the heritage tiling, and an effort has been made to create varied heights and types of seating arrangement to suit different groups and dining options.
‘The restaurant was such a large space; it needed a real draw to grab attention and it’s now such a vibey place thanks to Volta. It’s really captured the imagination of Manchester whilst not being too nichey. It’s cross-generational, from young hipsters to sharp older gentlemen in suits and the hotel guests ARE eating in. It seems to have ticked all the boxes.’
(Dani Charlseson-Gallacher, Development Director, Principal)
Design Challenge
The challenges were to make a space of this incredible volume work, as well as to attract both hotel and visitor customers.
Customers now enter either from the hotel reception or via a public entrance into the bar from the street corner. The design is open plan so that operators and guests alike can see the whole scenario, meaning that staff are ready to jump to serve the needs of guests. It’s open and flowing and never stuffy or segregated.
With the scale of a grand café, yet the informality of a local drinking den, the space is partitioned by a monolithic 40ft granite bar, with five stations to serve from depending on levels of use. The bar has a dedicated cloakroom and coffee-making facilities as well as its own dishwasher room, whilst the restaurant has two dumb waiters to help with logistics.
The acoustics were also a challenge; the original restored parquet flooring absorbs noise well, whilst the glazed Winter Garden, surrounded by crittal screens, acts as an effective sound barrier.
‘It’s tough to make a happening hotel from a forbidding Victorian office block. The Palace failed but Principal, I believe, has admirably succeeded.’
(The Telegraph)
Since its launch, The Refuge has consistently taken revenue in both the bar and the dining room that exceeds forecast. Most nights, demand outstrips supply in the Dining Room.
‘The Glamour of Manchester’ declared a revolutionary-style mural over the glazed-tile back wall. I can only agree: the Volta duo have tamed this monster of a place, this beast and turned it into an absolute beauty.’
(Marina O’Loughlin in The Guardian)
Sustainability
The various elements of the site have been in virtually constant use since 1895 and as such, have, over the course of this period, been added to and altered to suit both the function and needs at that point. One of the project's key aims was to peel back these layers to expose the original fabric and character underneath.
As the project started to develop and the interior design solution took shape, the team was able to reassess elements of the existing fabric with a view to ensuring that the original fabric was a fundamental part of the finished scheme.
3DReid, the scheme's architects, worked closely with the council’s Conservation Officer to develop solutions that minimized the impact on the original building. An example of this would be how to insert modern air handling and ventilation systems within the larger function spaces without impacting on the newly revealed original building fabric and decoration. The solution was to design an enclosure that masked the ducts and air handling equipment whilst ensuring that the original ceiling decorations remained both intact and visible.
Where possible 3DReid also worked with both the heritage consultant and the contractors to source materials from original suppliers where they still existed. Although in different ownership they engaged with the firm that could replicate the original molded decorative tiles to ensure that where replacements were required they matched the existing.
Interior Design - Hospitality
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
More Details